Wayka (

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

: "work together for the common good") is a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

online newspaper based in

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

that describes itself as an organization dedicated to promoting

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

, the protection of

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

and achieving the

common good In philosophy, Common good (economics), economics, and political science, the common good (also commonwealth, common weal, general welfare, or public benefit) is either what is shared and beneficial for all or most members of a given community, o ...

. The website believes that information accessibility is a human right not to be commoditized and that the media should remain independent from financial and political influence. The number of readers is between one and three million.

History

The idea of Wayka began when in

El Comercio Group El Comercio Group (GEC) is a Peruvian media conglomerate that owns multiple newspapers, television stations and other entities. The largest media conglomerate in Peru and one of the largest in South America, El Comercio Group is owned by the Mir� ...

acquired Empresa Periodistica Nacional SA (Epensa) in August 2013, resulting with the group owning 80% of the printed press in Peru. With El Comercio owning the majority of the printed

media in Peru The mass media in Peru includes a variety of different types of media, including television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based web sites. Much of the print-based media in Peru is over a century old, with some newspapers even ...

media pluralism Media pluralism defines the state of having a plurality of voices, opinions, and analyses in media systems (internal pluralism) or the coexistence of different and diverse types of medias and media support (external pluralism). Media pluralism ...

faced danger in the nation. Rael Mora and José Carlos Lama cofounded Wayka in 2013, believing that media pluarlism and the freedom of speech was essential for democracy.

Physical publication

In 2014, Rael Mora, Gonzalo Villamonte, Diana García, José Carlos Lama and Luciana Távara gathered to create an independent media organization that brought attention to overlooked communities – especially peasants, minorities and student groups – located within Peru. To raise funds for establishing Wayka, the group began an

Indiegogo Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows peo ...

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

campaign in an effort to distribute free weekly newspapers at

Lima Metro The Lima and Callao Metro () is a rapid transit system that serves the cities of Lima and Callao, which make up the Lima metropolitan area. The existing metro lines (1 and 2) currently link the district of Villa El Salvador in the south of Lim ...

stations. The original slogan of Wayka was "The newspaper that is not sold", which originally served as a

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, one of which is typically obvious, and the other often conveys a message that would be too socially unacc ...

due to the publication being both free of charge and financial influence. All initial work performed by Wayka was done by volunteer work. Wayka began distributing print newspapers on 15 May 2014, though it ceased physical publications in September 2017, continuing its online work instead as the newspaper became more self-sustainable.

Online publication

As the newspaper became online-focused in 2017, Wayka's motto changed to "More than journalism", with the group focusing on trends and headlines as it began to participate on the national scale. Using a CrowdTangle asset, Wayka would achieve one to three million readers for some publications. Audiovisual elements also evolved, with Wayka becoming more involved on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, WhatsApp and YouTube. Facebook has grown to be Wayka's main platform, with 1.2 million followers, with each published post receiving at least 100,000 interactions.

Funding

According to Wayka, the newspaper is funded by

human rights organizations :''The list is incomplete; please add known articles or create missing ones'' The following is a list of articles on the human rights organizations of the world. It does not include political parties, or academic institutions. The list includes ...

and its readers, with 80% of Wayka's funds reportedly being from international organizations.

Controversy

After publishing investigations surrounding allegations of child sexual abuse reportedly involving Peruvian politician Víctor Hugo Quijada Tacuri, journalist Graciela Tiburcio Loayza of Wayka and president of Amnesty International Peru faced death threats.

Recognition

In 2019, the Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos awarded Wayka with the 2019 Journalism and Human Rights Award.

Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is an American nonprofit organization

awarded Wayka with honors in its 2020 Media Excellence Awards, with other outlets such as

Vox Media Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company founded in Washington, D.C. with operational headquarters in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by CEO Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''S ...

and

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

being awarded beside the outlet.

References

{{Reflist Mass media in Lima Mass media in Peru